This position is based in and focused on Fairfield County in Connecticut.
The Major Gifts Officer is responsible for managing a portfolio of key stakeholders (major donors, family foundations, corporations, and planned giving prospects) from identification, cultivation, engagement, solicitation, and stewardship. The Major Gifts Officer serves as a front-line relationship manager and oversees a portfolio of approximately 125 donors using personalized outreach resulting in strong donor retention and increased giving using meaningful engagements. They work in partnership with other leaders to prepare meeting materials and participate in visits with donors and prospects including solicitation of major gifts ($5K+). They provide post-evaluation of meetings and interactions, entering their portfolio donor data into the CRM database to help the organization meet private support revenue goals. They report to the Senior Director of Strategic Giving.
Primary Responsibilities:
-Oversees a portfolio of donors identifying opportunities for increased and innovative giving.
-Broaden and deepen support from key stakeholders.
-Strategizes and prioritizes donors based on giving capacity and opportunities to further engage for the benefit of the food bank.
-Effectively manages donor relationships, through information discovery and dissemination of information to donor facing members of the team.
-Develops key messaging for major donors and other funders.
-Works with the members of Giving Team to strategize focus of donor meetings.
Requests, schedules, and leads donor meetings.
-Makes solicitations for gifts with the goal of successfully closing the asks at targeted or increased amounts.
-Works in partnership with leaders to identify key prospects for increased solicitation amounts/engagement.
-Identifies new prospects by analyzing data, then cultivates and successfully solicits and acquires them for major gift donations.
-Represents Connecticut Foodshare at events to help promote the mission of the organization.
-Tracks donor engagement and produces regular reports to track progress towards achieving goals.
-Collaborates with other staff members to maximize interactions with donors.
-Assists with other fundraising projects and fundraising events as needed.
-Assists in the development of cross-functional projects that may involve portfolio donors.
Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Education/Experience:
Resides in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Has experience working with donors in Fairfield County.
Bachelor's degree in business administration, communications, or related field with 3 years of related experience in similar or related function in comparable environment OR 6 years of related experience in similar or related function in comparable environment.
Experience working in the non-profit sector.
Experience soliciting and closing five figure gifts.
Familiarity and/or established connections with funders and/or other networks
Proficiency in Microsoft Office (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
Preferred Education/Experience:
Master's degree in related field with 2+ years of experience in similar or related function OR 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in similar or related function.
Certified Fund-Raising Executive (CFRE)
Experience with moves management and CRM databases to track donor contacts.
Connecticut Foodshare offers a generous benefits package.
Connecticut Foodshare is the food bank serving all of our neighbors across the state. Working with a strong network of community-based hunger relief programs, we help provide nutritious food as well as long-term, sustainable solutions to food insecurity. By joining Connecticut Foodshare, you will be part of a team that helps drive community awareness, garners support, leverages research, and engages volunteers, to realize our vision of a thriving community free of hunger.